A second heartbeat
by handlewithkara
Summary: Kara keeps tabs on the people she loves.


p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"em"One day you'll learn that there is so much more to what we see. You think we already see more than most people around us, but the truth is, we see so much more that our minds protect us from. With enough training, you can learn to hone in on the things that truly are important."/embr /Clark to Kara/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Kara adds Alex shortly after putting on the Supergirl suit for the first time. Clark has explained to her how it works when they wrote to each other. At first Kara is embarrassed. Alex would never agree to it after all. And still, the ability to know always know where her sister is and how she is doing, Kara realizes is something she just emneeds/em to know. So Kara does it, and Kara doesn't tell./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Besides, Kara tells herself, Lois is none the wiser either, at least as far as Clark knows./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"***/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Their tie gets broken only twice, once under the influence of red kryptonite and once when she is drifting off, in her manipulated dream world, there on Krypton with her family. After the red kryptonite, it takes 4 days till Kara brings up the courage to restore it. Like an idiot, she sits at home and burst into tears when she hears that familiar sound again and at that moment it's the most beautiful thing she's ever heard./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"*/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"When Alex comes out to her, Kara really wishes that she could kick herself. She really should have noticed the way Alex's heart has been fluttering irregularly. Now that she knows what to listen for, she could swear there is a new bounce to it that wasn't there before./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"***/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The first time Alex and Maggie have sex, Kara jerks up in her bed and quickly cuts the line when she realizes what is happening. She slowly, every so slowly tunes back in an hour later. Alex heartbeat is calm now steady and Alex wonders whether the simple sound of a heart pumping, pulsating, pushing blood through the human body can sound satisfied./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"***/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The first time she thinks of adding Mon-El is before she even knows his name. After all, he's a feral enemy, one who can't be trusted. It would make sense to always keep tabs on where he is, especially with the president's life at stake. Her insides bristle at the thought immediately, after all, the last thing she wants it emthat/em in her ear all day long./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Of course then she finds out she is so completely and utterly wrong./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"***/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The next time she almost does it after he tells her that he remembers kissing her. He turns to leave and when he's out the door and she's so tempted, because she emknows/em is heart is hurting and maybe she should keep an ear on it just to make sure he remains alright. They are partners still, after all, even if she doesn't want to be with him./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"***/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The third time she thinks about it is when he comforts her and she cries in his arms, there on the couch. Afterwards, she lies with her head on his chest and listens to his heartbeat, beating right below her cheek and she thinks that maybe this, this will be nice./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"***/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Kara finally pulls the trigger on it after they come back from Barry's world, when they have made up, alone in their apartment. He's curled around her, his head on her shoulder, his hand still stroking her side, right there where her gunshot wound was in the musical world. Her hand is in his hair, softly stroking her back of his head. She closes her eyes, pulls him close and zeroes in, finding her way between the noise of the street, the rustling of their blanket, his breathing and the sound of her fingers rubbing against his skin./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""What are you doing?"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Oh, nothing, just thinking." She smiles. "Seems like I'm stuck with you now."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Good stuck? Or bad stuck?"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Welllllll..."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"He looks up to her and laughs, then leans in and rubs his noes against hers./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""I think I'll live," she whispers./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""You sure?"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Pretty sure."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"***/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"She goes on patrol afterwards. Below her the nightly city is bustling, and yet all she can think is that it looks peaceful. She pushes up higher and higher and twirls between the clouds. For the first time, she gets to really enjoy it. It feels so new and different, that, counting her own, there's three of them now. Kara flies a loop and pirouettes. It's like dancing between the notes./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"One would think they'd all sound the same, except for some minor differences in size or age maybe. And yet, there's not a second where she can't tell which one is which./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"***/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Hearing what it sounds like when he faces down his parents makes her wish she would have done this earlier, would have known, would have emfelt/em this earlier. She can feel how badly he wants to run. Reaching for him, Kara makes him stop and makes one more heartfelt plea to his mother./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"And then, then, her body bleeding from Kryptonite, he pulls away and he tries to tell her it's okay and she wants to tell him that can emhear/em, that she knows that he is lying, how badly he doesn't want to go. He disappears into a flash of sparkling light and she can hear him, can still emhearem him./em/em/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Kara is shaking all over and when she calls Alex, she must be sounding like a mad woman, but Kara can't, just can't explain, how he is leaving and how she could swear she heard his heart stand still for a split second and how he's being pulled away from her further and further away with each passing moment. Clark told her that he can always hear Lois, no matter where she is in the world, but how can that still hold when it's 27 lightyears?/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"emPlease, J'onn, I can't lose him./em/p 


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